Ingredients: 1 kg biroi (binni) rice, 2 cups coconut, half a cup of sugar, 4 tablespoons of water and salt to taste.

Method: Clean and wash 1 kg of rice and soak it for 5 to 6 hours. Then lift it out, drain it in a colander, spread the grains on paper and dry them under a fan. Grind the rice to a powder in a grinder. Mix the rice powder with the water and salt and knead it. The mixture should hold together when squeezed in a fist; if it does, the powder is ready for pitha.

Now heat a griddle on the stove. With your hands, spread the powder in a round on the griddle. Add sugar and grated coconut, cover with a lid and wait 2 to 3 minutes. Then remove the lid and fold the pitha in two or three, and the binni rice pitha is ready.

You can also mix colour into the powder and sift it to make coloured binni pitha.

Source: Prothom Alo. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.